Gem from around the (PM) world - Vol 67

What is the demand framework - its not "solve for pain points", or even JTBD

Hi

Happy Friday !

I've been thinking a lot about why startups with seemingly strong validation still fail. Found this fascinating piece from Commoncog (its a summary of the book Heart of Innovation) that introduces "Deliberate Innovation" - a framework that challenges the traditional pain-point and Jobs-to-be-Done approaches we all use. The key insight is around "authentic demand" - situations where customers literally "cannot not buy" your solution, rather than just saying they would.

What caught my attention is their focus on studying specific situations rather than customer personas or stated needs. They use "Situation Diagrams" to map contexts where real demand emerges. If you're building products or advising teams on product-market fit, this offers a more rigorous test than the usual customer validation playbook. Worth a read if you've ever wondered why customers who seem excited about your solution don't actually buy it.

Here is the article.

I just bought their book “The Heart of Innovation” by Matt Chanoff and Merrick Furst.

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I share B2B PM articles every Tuesday and a GEM like this every Friday.
Here are the past Gems.

https://productsos.substack.com/t/gems